Site Updates: Lots of changes to the website have occurred.
Mountain House will have new prices January 1st. Alpine Aire already did in November, but may have more in the new year. Rainy Day notified us yesterday that there will be all new prices coming sometime next month. They’ve also told us that FedEx, UPS and Freight shipping costs are going up again.
Since food storage can last decades, it a smart investment today at today’s prices. We’ve seen prices quadruple in the past, and no doubt they will again. Desdemona and Fire Earth have repeatedly shown agricultural disaster declarations around the nation and around the world, these will have huge effects on prices and availability.
Hundreds of detail pages have now been updated, including all of the Alpine Aire, Richmoor and Mountain House products, and many Rainy Day products. Those that are still missing (a few dozen) are because the manufacture has never released any more information.
I’ve finally added a new “Questions Not To Ask” to my contact page. Many questions have been endlessly answered thousands of times, I’m hoping that this will cut these down to a manageable level.
We now offer case quantities on Alpine Aire pouches and #2.5 cans, something we didn’t have before. We completely sold-out our Mountain House Sampler Packages, not sure if we’re going to get these in again or not (they’re labor intensive). We may try something else.We’re still going with our check and money order discounts for the time being. You can find these details on the shopping cart checkout page.
We’ve also added an expanded Food Storage calculator page, which can do year or month calculations for you with much more detail then before, and a new downloadable catalog that will automatically be updated. We will probably never return to printed catalogs, as they are instantly obsolete whenever products/prices change, and a terrible waste of resources.
2011 broke all records, by far (a solid 60% increase). 2012 will probably do it again. This level of volume is requiring us to try and become more efficient all the time. We’re still seeing a lot of “casual shoppers” who apparently have no idea what to do, how to get started or just like kicking tires. As promised in my “triage” comments, I will only help those now who will demonstrably help themselves.
We are seeing a “decline of service” across the board. It’s as if Americans have simply given up. Mediocre service or even no service at all are every-day occurrences now. This is extremely bizarre in a time of severe economic decline, when you would think that people would be jumping at the chance for work. Not so from our perspective. Just the opposite has been true in my own personal experience.
This is not the time to give up. It’s time to get going. Americans are going to have try harder then ever now. The failure to do so will mean more and more personal collapse events, multiplied by hundreds of thousands, even millions. And that will have a huge cumulative effect on everything else throughout our economy.
News
Several people sent me emails about the alleged FBI investigation being reported by Promise Keepers into cannery sales. This story was immediately suspect as it made absolutely no sense whatsoever. I didn’t bother reporting this as it was utterly bogus, and not the first time they’ve done this either. As it turns out, it was bogus, but not before causing a lot of unnecessary “scare” among the prepper community.
Everybody (prepper or not) needs to watch out for this type of scam (that’s exactly what it was, a scam). The idea behind these scams is to play the well-worn fear card, and get you to cut loose with some cash, even if it turns out that the promoters get caught in their lies. There are many websites, forums, blogs, and articles all hysterically hyping what “you need to do”. The agenda in every single case is the same — to make a profit from you. They’re all making merchandise out of you — so beware.
Only YOU know what YOU need to do. This is a personal decision, based upon advice, information and experience. One of the primary reasons I do not advertise on anybody else’s website is because of this same “fear-marketing” (and the ridiculous fees they charge). This all translates into a higher prices ultimately paid by you, the so-called “connedsumer”, who as ever, is being manipulated, again and again.
Self-education of the facts and how the real world actually works will go a long ways towards your peace of mind (and wallet). I strongly advocate that people DO prepare for the eventualities of our declining world, but do this calmly and with forethought. Panic never serves you well unless you are in an immediate life-threatening situation, and even then, can cause you to make a poor decision. Responsible decision making is a personal responsibility, and does not belong in the hands of anyone else but you.
I am now strongly emphasizing that everyone “help themselves”. This is not a time for people to remain helpless or dependent, asking other people to make decisions for them. Here’s why:
A declining world, which has now been exhaustively documented, requires people to perform (exist) in ways in which they never have before. The support structures that once enabled a comfortable existence are falling apart, requiring you to work harder, think more and do more then ever before. Expecting the “old world” of yesterday or last year or even ten years ago to somehow magically “return” is a ridiculous belief, it won’t happen. It won’t ever happen, no matter what. No matter who is (s)Elected for President or even if you land a better job.
Yesterday is “over”. Forever. You will NEVER have “yesterday” or “last year” again. EVER. This is now the past. It will always and forever remain the past. All you have is now. Today and all of the tomorrow’s that might come. Therefore, it is up to you and nobody else to see to it that these todays and all of the tomorrows will be what you want them to be, to the best of your ability. It is absolutely pointless to lament about all the yesterdays, endlessly whining and crying about how you want it all back.
Many, many articles and websites are concentrating on yesterdays. There is really little point to this and it will never, ever lead to a restoration of yesterdays either. It’s a logical and physical impossibility.
I am also seeing a lot of “reruns” on themes, agendas, memes and topics, to the point of almost total disgust. What’s the point to all of this? It’s near-useless information and accomplishes nothing. The mainstream media news sources are very guilty of controlling the flow of information. They’ve done a great job ensuring that you remain a tightly controlled little robot, firmly plugged into their system of belief and fabrication. The stories they publish, which are then picked up by the blogs and forums, are reruns — regurgitating again and again the same bits of useless “news” and infotainment.
This is nothing new to astute observers. It’s just very, very tiresome. The main problem with this is the sheer manipulation of the thinking and awareness of millions and millions of people. The “herd” is being manipulated at every level these days, through the constant bombardment of misinformation, deflection, distraction, infotainment and outright fabrication of “news” and “facts”.
Why is this so important? Because it is causing millions of people to support things like genocide, unjustifiable war, terrorist actions by government, the removal of American freedoms for our so-called “protection” and so forth. The crimes being committed in our name (the American people) continue to happen because we continue to remain ignorant and supportive. The mainstream media is VERY GUILTY on this point and is just as responsible for these atrocities and injustices as if they had done them themselves.
It takes a blind, willing and ignorant populace to allow these things to occur. The latest news on war technology, weaponization of the American civilian police forces and FEMA contracts and actions is all occurring now in response to our (slow) “awakening” to what is actually going on. This is going to lead to conflict sooner or later. No nation has EVER undergone the changes to fascism like we have and suddenly “reversed” themselves before conflict has occurred. This only happens after much carnage and bloodshed has exhausted itself.
There is a naive “hope” that the next (s)Election will prevent this type of thing happening here. I doubt it very much. The so-called powers that be are too well entrenched and invested to just politely pack up and leave. If Ron Paul is elected, then he will have a gigantic fight on his hands unlike ANYTHING this country has EVER seen before. It will be of such great magnitude that it will very likely tear this country apart. But I still think that everyone should vote for him, because he is the only candidate that will actually TRY and bring REAL CHANGE.
This country is absolutely desperate for change that REDUCES then insane and ridiculous demands being laid upon our shoulders. Paul promises that (if he can deliver). But this is not going to be enough. I advocate that the PEOPLE THEMSELVES must change too. We need to abandon our stupid notions of dependency and entitlements and get back our individual freedoms and liberties — which means personal responsibilities for one’s life and actions. We will never get “yesterday” back or the freedom and liberties yesterday had — but we can (if we try) get freedom and liberty back that will be better then it is today.
Paul wants to do away with the TSA for example. These groping morons should all be fired, the entire lot of them. He also wants to do away with five Cabinet level agencies. That’s a start, but can any of this happen in just four years? We’ll see, but first he has to put into power. It’s not enough, but asking or even hoping for more is a pipe dream.
Personally, I’d tear the whole thing down and start over, rebuilding only what is essential and necessary for the well-being and liberty of the people themselves, applying common sense and personal responsibility to all of it. No government entity should be allowed to exist that is simply self-serving, which includes most of what we have today. This is the definition of a “parasite”, sucking the lifeblood from the people as it justifies its “essential existence”. Political reforms are rarely, if ever, actually successful, because they do not deconstruct enough before rebuilding. I am not an advocate of this approach since it doesn’t actually work.
2012 will be “interesting” to say the least. I’m gearing up as best I can for it. My advice is everyone else do the same.
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